Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

tOO-mi. Junior: Singleton's expensive half gallon, , Blackman 's ,WIn or erash' . lap By Gary Van Voo rhis DAYTO NA BEAC H, FL A., l\IAR. 7 $ 700 is a high pri ce to pay for a half gallon o f gas, but that's exactl y wh at it cost Georgia rider Dale Singleton. It also co st Scott Clough diced briefly with Tigert, settled to second Lightwe ight Production. expected in the 750 race never materialized as Cycle's Co ok Neilson on his Super Sport desmodromic Ducati rode im pressively to the class win while taking fifth overall, beating half of the Open class machines. Both Tony Murphy, editor of Motorcyclist, and Art Friedman. associate editor of Cycle Guide, slowed early with mechanical proble ms. H-2 Kawasaki m o unted Ed Turjanica, the Canadian Pro duct io n racing whiz , re mained a dis tant sec ond o n his Kawasaki Motors Cana da spo nso re d b ikes, n ever chal lengi ng Cook 's Duck as it droned into th e dis tanc e. Car l Sm ith on a 75 0cc Honda Four closed in on Turjanica later in th e race fo r third , whil e fourth fell to Torello Tac chi riding a Laverda . Lightweight road races Ontario lightweight Product ion winner, Scott Clough, jumped into a lap one lead to renew his running battle with Bob Tigert in this RD 350 Yamaha dominated event. Tigert, sponsored by Harry Hun t, Shelby Motors and California Surplus, got by Clough o n t he outside of tum one on lap two and h ad p ow er to st art pulling away, as he h ad predicted. Canadian Ed Turjanica, riding a Kawasaki Motors Canada 350cc S-2 Kawasa ki, posed a first-lap threat tha t en de d ab ru ptly when he fell entering the ba nking. He remounted dead last and worked back up to 12th in the 45 -man field. Henry Oly neger on a Huggins Cy cle Yamaha main tained a solid third thro ugh the entire 38 mile event. Tigert scrape d h is kn ees as he went on to win by a wide margin ove r Clo ugh , an d ma de it a win ning th reeso me for West • Coast Production racers. Unofficial Results OPEN CLASS : 1. D ave Aldana (Kaw) . 2. B ob End icott (Kaw). 3 . Yvon DuHamel (Kaw). 4. Reg Pr idmore (B MW) . 5 . Rodne y B . Pink (H~D) . 6. K urt Liebmann (BMW) . 7 . Ron Pierce (BMW) . 8. John Hoffman (BMW). 9. Dale Alexander (Kaw) . 10. J im Dunn (H ·D) . 7S0cc CLASS: 1. Cook Neilson lDue). At this sta ge, it's winner Blackman (12) chasin' Erickson . 16 a, Ed Tu r jan ica (Kaw). 3 . Carl Sm ith Han). 4 . Tore llo Tacch l ( La y). S. Pat Mahoney (Yam). 6 . James Albert (Due) . 7 . AI Phill ips (Due) . 8 . Arthur Friedman (Klw). 9 . Tony M urphy (Duel . 10 . John Long (Nor) • • AVER SPEED: 96.073 mph. TIM E OF RACE: 23: 5 8.90. _ LIGHTWEIGHT PRODUCTION : 1. Bob Tigert (Yam). 2 . Scott Clough (Yam). 3 . Henry O lynger (Yam). 4. Larry Ko op (Yam). 5. Henry McDon ough (Yam) . 6. John Vurojefcl c (Yam) . 7. Dennis Lamb (Yam) . 8 . Ge orge Morin <' lam ). 9 . Marc ManC in i (Yam). 10. Bryan S pinks (Yam). 11. George Taylor (Yam). 12. Alan Barb ie (Yam). 13 . Ed TurJanlca (Kaw) . 14. Ed Mesgor (Yam) . 15 . Ken Rooke (Yam) . 16 . Bob N icholS (Yam) . 17. Sam Sisson (Yam) . 18. John Wilcox (Yam) . 19. M ike Baldw in (M oM) . 2 0 . R ich Treat (Yam) . Singleton the vic to ry in th e 100 mile Junior race . Self-sponsored Pennsylv an ian Gary Blackman took the win in the last 40 y ards on wh at he termed his "win or crash " lap. Scott Erickson, who trucked in from cold Montana rounded out the top three. Each rider put in such a go od rid e fo r hi s position that it 's hard to separate their involvement. Scott Eric kso n, a so me t ime road racer, so me time di rt tr ack er an d full time college student started things off on Th ursday qualifying at a speed o f 10 3. 21 8 with Rich Ch am b ers , Gary Blac km an , Bill Peters and Dale Singleton ftIling out th e front row aft er ti me trials were o ver. The dra ma st art ed righ t o n t he grid as the officials held up th e o ne minute signal. At t hat moment Dale Singleton couldn't fin d neu tral in his gearbox. With the 30 second sign up he ro lle d o ff th e grid sacrificing h is front ro w start for a tai l-en de rs sp ot. It didn 't las t long as Singleto n sco o te d from last to 10th in the space o f t he firs t lap . Eri ckson sped in to th e lead foll o wed by Blackman , Bill Peters, Skip Aksla nd an d Murry Hoffman. Th e fron t running group be gan t o swap places wh ile Singleton m oved through t raffi c with a vengeance. Aksland dropped Blackman to third, swapped with Erickson and then cha n ged aro und agai n be fore the fourth lap. Akslan d pulled out some breathing room on the fifth go aro und using his po wer to adva nta ge on the banking, but losing ground through the infield . Singleton moved into fourth . Lap seven had to be one of the most ex citing laps ever seen as Singleton o utbraked Blackman for th ird going into th e infi eld an d th en picked off Erickson and Aksl and at an am azin g pace to emerge o nto the banking in the lead. The cro wd went wild. Never has a rider co me fr om last pl ace to first an d win. Sin gleton was going to break that jinx. Or was he? Erickson con ti nue d to run a seco nd or two behind in seco nd wh ile Blac kman and Aks land went at it and Bill Peters and Murray Hoffman follo wed. On th e 10th lap Singleton cut a circuit at 10 2.1 mp h and had a th ree seco nd bu lge ove r Erickson. Singleton. slowe d by traffic, los t the lead on lap 13 as Erickso n ou t braked him into the first t um of th e in fiel d only to lose it t o th e p ow er of Singleton as Dale d rafted past on the eas t banking . Blackman, in third, began to close. Sin gleto n , in an effort to squeeze o ut as big a lead as possibl e, was gobb ling up traffic at a fa ntastic pace. The gas stops sta rted o n lap 15 with Single ton in and ou t in a flash. Too quick in fact , as he to ok on o nly two gallo ns of gas inst ead of a safe two and a half. It was to cost Singleton the rac e. Erickson I too k over th e lead on Singleton's st op then pitted himself putting Blackman into a sh ort lead as Kevin Cam er on got the Mon tana rider in and ou t in record time. It was quick enough to regain the lea d in half a lap. Blackman was the next to gas with Peters following and Aksland using a very late stop strategy. Fifth place Murry Hoffman ca m e in for his gas stop onl y 'to lo se gro und when th e collecto r hos e from th e gas pump wouldn't co me loose; fortunately it did not cost th e Cali fornia rider a place. Th e 2 1st lap sa w Single to n with a Eric kso n and 300 yard lead an d Blackman side by side. Th e second place d uo swa pped places th en re-swapped and their p ositio ns remained th e same as they sta rted the nex t lap . Blac km an took o ver seco nd for good wit h fo ur lap s remain in g an d began to close th e gap o n Singleton alt hou gh th e Georgia ri de r ap peared to hold enough edge to ma ke h is lead hold . On t he last lap the pair passed th e fini sh line with Single to n holding an uno fficial t hree seco n ds o ver Blackman . The pair swe p t through th e infield, and th en onto th e banking an d th e ba ckstraigh t wh ere the distan ce between th em appeare d to stay the same. As Singleton en tered onto the banking from the chicane fo r th e last time t he engine sp u ttere d, t he n sputtered again an d fin ally died, but with enough momen tum to p ossibly coa st ac ross and win . He was about 30 yards short. Blackman blew by to take the flag and the win as Singleton coasted dejectedly into second place . Erickson and Aksla!!d . took the next two places and Murray Hoffman nail ed Bill Peters at the lin e for fifth . The look on Single ton's face as he pulled off his helmet was worth a of them million words . . . none printabl e. Erickson, with a safe third (Continued on page 42)

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